Fulfilment or Survival? This is my take on the raging debate between two professionals from my alma mater. Consider the physician who also sells fish and vends vegetables. What does their condition tell us? What do these side hustles reveal? We know that they wanted to be doctors when they were younger. They may have…
We inhabit a fractured world. Tell me, can you feel it too? I feel it every morning when I emerge into society. I feel it as I endure the breakfast news and podcasts. I feel it throughout the day as I visit the digital platforms I inhabit, and even in the evenings as I plunge…
MACHINES HAVE JUST LEARNT HOW TO THINK The dance between what we can imagine and what is possible is a delicate one. Optimism, no matter how latent in logic, often finds itself wrapped in the shameful garments of hype. Grand ideas appear absurd when measured against what we believe. This is because we comfort ourselves…
This is a response to the article titled Who is an African, written by a dear friend and business partner of mine. You should read his piece first, before relishing mine. Nothing matters more than the present. All we have is now, for it is the only platform upon which we can exercise our agency….
This article follows directly from Part 1: Understanding Surveillance Oppression in Kenya. However, it can be read on its own as a separate self-contained document. Reccommendations The following are some recommendations, which when followed even in part, will inculcate an attitude of defensive security, not only during political agitation but also as a pre-emptive strategy…
Colonial era Political dissent monitoring via spying operations and subsequent repression via government-sanctioned violence and extrajudicial killings have a tragically rich history in Kenya. It started in the 19th century when the British recruited missionaries and mercenaries as porters and guides as they colonised our territory. As they crept into villages and communes, they planted…
Although proverbs are cherished for their elegant brevity, wit, and their perceived truths, they possess an inherent unfairness. Proverbs oversimplify our experiences and cast a broad, unyielding judgement on those who do not conform. This is despite the fact that the truths that they bare are always incomplete. This is also why it is easy…
Hope and Despair Since becoming a republic on 12th December 1964, Kenya’s political landscape has oscillated between optimistic epochs of a bustling democracy and dark interludes of authoritarianism. As with many African nations, ours started with the celebration of our independence from British colonial rule. But this joy waned fast when our first president, Jomo…
I wish I could see you as vividly as I see my reflection in the mirror. I wish you were here. Right now. I wish you could hear me as clearly as I hear my thoughts. Technology has not yet provided the tools for me to reach out to you in the future, and neither…
I arrived in Kilifi at the break of dawn on the midnight bus from Nairobi. In the final moments of the trip, as the bus crossed the Kilifi Bridge — the longest bridge in the country — I caught a grand mural of colours as the sun reached above the ocean to claim the skies,…